This paper reviews central banks' legal reform in Latin America during the 1990s and discusses the status of central bank independence in the region. Based on this information, it builds a simplified index of central bank independence which, in addition to the commonly used criteria of political...

This study takes stock of the institutional reform of monetary policy in Latin America since the early 1990s. It argues that strengthening the legal independence of central banks, together with macroeconomic policies, was instrumental in reducing inflation from three-digit annual rates in the...

This paper analyzes the experiences of emerging market economies (EMEs) that have liberalized capital flows over the past 15 years with respect to macroeconomic performance and risks to financial stability. The results of the panel data regressions indicate that greater openness to capital flows...

This paper assesses empirically the key drivers of private capital flows to a large sample of emerging market economies in the last decade. It analyzes the effect of the global financial cycle, measured by the VIX, on capital flows and investigates the role of fundamentals and country...

This paper analyses the impact of global and regional spillovers to GCC equity markets. GCC equity markets were impacted by spillovers from US equity markets despite varying degrees of foreign participation. Spillovers from regional equity markets were also important but the magnitude of the...

This paper investigates the causes of extreme fluctuations in commodity prices from 1990 to 2010. Analyzing two very distinct commodities-crude oil and fine wine, we find that macroeconomic factors are the main determinants of commodity prices. Although supply constraints have the expected...

This paper analyzes the impact of global and regional spillovers to GCC equity markets. GCC equity markets were impacted by spillovers from U.S. equity markets despite varying degrees of foreign participation. Spillovers from regional equity markets were also important but the magnitude of the...

This paper studies the impact of trade openness policy on economic growth volatility in Middle Eastern and North African countries. The observed trade openness is divided into natural openness and trade openness policy. Natural openness is determined by a country’s structural and geographical...

This paper investigates the predictions of the theory of optimal seigniorage in developing countries over the period 1970-1999. The tax smoothing hypothesis, tested on forty selected developing countries, is rejected. However, the hypothesis that economies with high levels of expenditure and...